In February, John M. Shapiro and Shonni J. Silverberg made a gift of $3.5 million to “transform the teaching of writing” at Wesleyan University and endow institution’s Creative Writing Center. The donors asked that $2.5 million of the gift be used to endow a faculty position in writing and that the remaining $1 million support renovation of the Creative Writing Center. Mr. Shapiro is co-founder and managing director of Chieftain Capital Management, an investment advisory firm based in New York City. He graduated with Honors from Wesleyan in 1974, then earned an MBA from Columbia University in 1978. Dr. Shonni J. Silverberg received her BA cum laude at Wesleyan in 1976 with a major in Biology, and earned her MD from Cornell University in 1980. She is Professor of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, and currently serves as a member of the Wesleyan University Board of Trustees. According to the university’s website, the couple had previously provided an endowment for Wesleyan’s Jewish Studies program, underwritten scholarships and contributed to the Wesleyan Fund.

The Hanover Area Family YMCA in Pennsylvania has announced receipt of a $750,000 grant from the J. William Warehime Foundation to expand aquatic facilities. The contribution is expected to cover nearly 75% of the cost of the organization’s new warm-water pool construction. The Foundation, which was founded by area businessman J. William Warehime, noted that this is their first grant since the founder’s death in January of last year, according to coverage in the Daily Record/Sunday News. Foundation director Linda Lohr told the paper that the contribution was in the spirit of Mr. Warehime’s commitment to local causes. “We were looking for worthwhile things in the Hanover area that would make a positive impact to the people in the area,” Ms. Lohr explained, adding, “A lot of people go through those doors.”

Guma and Jamie Aguiar have made a $500,000 contribution to The International March of the Living. The gift–one of the largest private donations in the organizations history–will enable students without sufficient financial means to take part in the 2009 March of the Living, a three-kilometer march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the death camp where over 1.5 million Jews perished, on April 21, the 70th Anniversary of the commencement of the Second World War. According to the Jewish Times, Guma Aguiar, founder of Leor Energy, and his wife will serve as honorary co-chairs of the 2009 event and participate in the march as well.

The Phoenixville Public Library in Eastern Pennsylvania has received from a contribution of cash and securities valued at between $500,000 and $600,000 from an anonymous donor. According to The Phoenix, the gift is believed to be the largest single donation from an individual since Andrew Carnegie gave the community the original library building in 1903. The funds will support a renovation and expansion of library facilities, both preserving the Carnegie Library and adding a new building with an expanded children’s library, space for young adult readers, public meeting areas, materials collection increases and computer information access.

An anonymous donor has made a gift of over $5 million to support Franklin & Marshall College’s Patricia E. Harris Center for Business, Government & Public Policy. The newly renovated Center will house the government department, the business, organizations and society department, the Floyd Institute for Public Policy and information technology services. According to Lancaster Online, the donation includes a $1 million challenge.

Philip T. and Susan M. Ragon have pledged $100 million over ten years to a consortia of leading Boston institutions–Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology–to develop an effective vaccine against AIDS and harness the power of the immune system to prevent and cure other human diseases. The gift will create the Philip T. and Susan M. Ragon Institute which will, according to Massachusetts General Hospital press office, “bring scientists and clinicians together with engineers, using the latest technologies in an interdisciplinary effort to better understand how the body fights infections and ultimately to apply that understanding against a wide range of infectious diseases and cancers.” Mr. Ragon is founder, owner, and chief executive officer of InterSystems Corporation, a multinational software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which provides database and integration technologies along with hospital information systems and national health record systems. Mrs. Ragon is vice president of Finance and Administration at the company. The couple resides in Cambridge. In detailing their decision to make the gift to the consortia, Mr. Ragon explained that “by providing flexible funding and by connecting science and engineering at MIT and Harvard with the research and clinical resources of MGH, we intend to empower many of the world’s best researchers to focus on what they view as the most promising research. We hope to engage them in a multidisciplinary collaborative effort for which there may be no greater benefit – curing the ill and saving lives.” The Ragon Institute will be housed at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Montclair State University has received an anonymous donation of $5 million, the largest such gift in the institution’s history. According to announcement by the University News division, the funds will be used principally to fund scholarships to women and minorities.

The University of Illinois has just announced receipt of a $12 million endowment gift from the estate of 1944 alumnae Arlys Streitmatter Conrad. The gift will be shared equally by the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS). Mrs. Conrad had worked at S&C Electric […]

Over 100 public schools in northeastern Oklahoma will receive more than $3 million from The Cherokee Nation in 2009. The donation will come from revenue generated by tribal car tag sales. As principal Chief Chad Smith said at a news conference announcing the gift, “Innovative educational programs continue to be a priority as we plan […]

In February, John M. Shapiro and Shonni J. Silverberg made a gift of $3.5 million to “transform the teaching of writing” at Wesleyan University and endow institution’s Creative Writing Center. The donors asked that $2.5 million of the gift be used to endow a faculty position in writing and that the remaining $1 million support […]

Jarvis Christian College has received $250,000 from an anonymous member of the Northway Christian Church. The contribution, announced by Jarvis in January, will be used to endow a scholarship for a Northway student to attend the school. Jarvis and Northway have a strong relationship, according to the Longview News-Journal, with the church supporting the co […]

The UCLA Library has received $5 million from the Arcadia Fund to “further develop, preserve and make accessible its collections,” according to the UCLA Newsroom. This is the largest single gift for collections in the history of the library. The Arcadia Fund, a British grantmaking fund administered by Charities Aid Foundation which has made several […] […]

The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation has pledged $1 million to The UCLA Foundation to fund an endowed chair in clinical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The focus of the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Endowed Chair in Interdepartmental Clinical Pharmacology will be to catalyze the UCLA’s current program by […] […]

The UCLA Anderson School of Management has announced a $1 million gift from Board of Visitors member Richard S. Ziman, chairman of American Value Partners and co-chair of the school’s $100 million fundraising campaign. One half of the contribution will fund the new Richard S. Ziman Fellowship, which will support graduate students studying real estate, […] […]

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has announced receipt of a $2 million gift from Renee Haugerud and John H. Murphy. According to the Times Free Press, the contribution will be split with $1.5 million to establish the Renee Haugerud and John H. Murphy Global Finance Center at the business school and the remaining $500,000 […]

Hong Kong martial arts action star Jackie Chan is donating historical Chinese houses valued at over US$67 million (S$101 million) to a new Singaporean university slated to open in 2011. According to reports in AFP, Chan will give the campus seven wooden houses and a performing stage from his private collection which date to the […]